Minda Seibert's fundraising page for Empowering Women In India Through Literacy

Help Indian women learn to read!

Five million laborers work the hot, humid tea estates of Assam — 60 percent of them are women. Their daily wages are only about US $1.50 for more than eight hours of rigorous and physically demanding work. They pluck tea in the hot sun or pouring rain, mostly barefoot, carrying a heavy basket filled with leaves. Illiteracy is one big cause that prevents these women from looking for other job opportunities.

In 2009, Mercy Corps created and implemented a women's empowerment program that succeeded in making 350 women literate in just eight months. For the women, it meant not only signing their names and counting their salaries for the first time, but also enjoying an improved status in family and society. Today, Mercy Corps wants to expand that success — and sense of accomplishment — to hundreds more women throughout northeastern India.

Please make a gift to this page and help me meet my fundraising goal!